That's a tricky question. I think the best and most honest answer would come if the committee were to call as witnesses the Deputy Minister of Finance and the Secretary of the Treasury Board to ask that question. I think that will be important. I think officials from both those agencies should be looking at that issue.
One thing is clear. Given that budgets are multi-purpose documents, one of which is to manage the macroeconomic situation or economy, we know the importance to the Minister of Finance, to the government, and indeed to all Canadians of having some flexibility in when you can bring a budget down given the economic situation. So that has to be examined.
But I think there could be opportunities to either extend the start of the fiscal year, given the requirements that have been set out, or, clearly, to get a date on which the budget would come earlier. But there are many practical considerations that need to be looked at, including the time when Parliament would review things, the traditions of summer and what these mean in this country, and various other things. So those are things that need to be looked at as a way of doing it.
I think what's important is that we commit ourselves—and hopefully the government will do this, with Parliament's strong advocacy—to ensure that can find ways to include these budgetary items in the main estimates.